An Update On The Dead Nation Patch + A Small Tease

Last year was a rather good year for PSN gamers with titles such as Tumble and Soldner-X 2 making a splash on Sony’s service and providing highly entertaining gameplay. Amongst the key releases we saw last year, one standout was the zombie action title Dead Nation from developer Housemarque. Despite being another twin-stick shooter, Dead Nation provided some really tense moments, an addicting online ranking system and gorgeous visuals which made the game one of the best titles to be released on the PlayStation Network.

Amongst the list of things Dead Nation did right (tight controls, satisfying combat) there was one main thing people wanted in the game: voice chat during online co-op. Housemarque went on record saying that they were going to add voice chat via a patch, but considering that it’s been three months since the game came out, many were beginning to wonder if the patch was cancelled. Thankfully, the patch for Dead Nation is still on deck and Housemarque also has some other exciting news for us in the future.

Taking to the always entertaining NeoGAF forums, Housemarque Creative Director Harri Tikkanen commented on the status of the Dead Nation patch. Yes, the Dead Nation patch that includes voice chat support is still coming and Housemarque actually finished it back in late December. Exactly why the patch hasn’t been released by Sony wasn’t revealed, but at least we can take solace in knowing that gamers will be able to chat with one another when zombie slaying at some point in the near future. The delay in Sony’s release of the Dead Nation patch has nothing to do with the sales of the game not living up to estimates as Harri commented that Dead Nation has done exceptionally well, possibly outselling the combined efforts of genre competitors such as Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light and Alien Breed.

Harri sadly didn’t go into greater detail concerning the Dead Nation patch, but he assured everyone that a release date will be announced soon and the patch will include other major updates besides the voice chat support. Additionally, Harri teased of an impending announcement concerning Housemarque’s other PSN hit Super Stardust HD. A favorite of mine and many other gamers out there, Super Stardust HD is one of the must have games to own on the PSN and it’s exciting to hear that Housemarque has something lined up for SSHD.

Some momentum may have been lost for Dead Nation with the lack of voice chat support and the somewhat snail pace to get the patch released, but at least Housemarque and Sony are still dedicated to bringing the patch out at some point. And any news concerning Super Stardust HD is good news to me but I just hope we aren’t getting an announcement that PlayStation Move support is being patched into the game.

So with the news of Dead Nation finally getting voice chat support, are any of you out there going to hop back into the game or buy it now that you can talk to a buddy while you blow zombies up?